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Home International Veterans Day Classic at Daytona Speedway mixes NASCAR, music, tributes

Veterans Day Classic at Daytona Speedway mixes NASCAR, music, tributes

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Pinned to the shirts of all five members of Jenny Del Valle’s family were buttons featuring a young, brown-haired man smiling.

The man was her brother, Daniel, who served in the U.S. Air Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom, which was the country’s code name for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was honorably discharged in 2007 but was killed after a car hit him two years later. He was 36.

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It’s ironic, she said. He went through a harrowing war only to be killed in a freak accident.

Honoring his legacy is important, regardless, and this Veterans Day, Jenny and her family joined thousands of others to honor him — and all other veterans or current military members — at Ford’s first Veterans Day Classic held at the Daytona International Speedway on Nov. 11.

“It’s important to continue my brother’s legacy and keep his memory alive,” she told a News-Journal reporter. “What he did in Iraq was brave. He was my hero.”

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Ford’s Veterans Day Classic honors service and sacrifice in Daytona

Jenny Del Valle, of Orlando, writes a letter to her dead brother, Daniel, and pastes it on a wall at Ford’s Veterans Day Classic event at Daytona International Speedway Nov. 11, 2026. The event, held on Veterans Day, aimed to honor all those who served in the country’s military. Her brother had served in the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and was honorably discharged in 2007, only to be killed by a car crash two years later.

(Kairi Lowery)

Ford hosts its first Veterans Day Classic event at the Daytona International Speedway

Along with the Del Valle family, who drove from Orlando to the Speedway, the inaugural event drew thousands of supporters, veterans, NASCAR fans and country music lovers, and featured a race and performances by big-name artists like the Zac Brown Band, Russell Dickerson and Jo Dee Messina.

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The 30-minute race consisted of 12 drivers, all of whom were assigned one of the six military branches to represent. U.S. Air Force representative Austin Cindric ultimately won in an on-and-off duel for the lead with driver Robert Noaker, who represented the U.S. Marine Corps.

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Ford Veterans Day Classic debuts with concert, race at Daytona

Drivers speed through the East Horseshoe during the Veterans Day Classic race on Nov. 11, 2026, at Daytona International Speedway.

(Nadia Zomorodian/News-Journal)

Ford’s Veterans Day Classic event draws veterans from all walks of life

While the 12 roaring engines racing around the track weren’t as thunderous and loud as those of the more than 40 racers and their cars that the Speedway normally sees for the Daytona 500 or Coke Zero 400, the sound still put Nathalie Cummings at a loss for words.

Dressed in her U.S. Army camouflage uniform with her dark hair slicked back into a bun, she eagerly peered over the white barricade separating pit workers from the track every two minutes as the cars zoomed past and completed another lap.

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At 23, Cummings currently serves in the U.S. Army as a human resource specialist. Her two-year anniversary with the military is next month in December. She originally joined partly for the benefits and partly to honor her father, who was an Army Ranger.

The military invited Nathalie Cummings, 23, of Orlando, to Ford's inaugural Veterans Day Classic event at Daytona International Speedway Nov. 11, 2026.

The military invited Nathalie Cummings, 23, of Orlando, to Ford’s inaugural Veterans Day Classic event at Daytona International Speedway Nov. 11, 2026.

Based out of the Orlando area, she does the behind-the-scenes work of her unit. Things like payroll and paperwork following a death usually go unnoticed, but the position was her foot in the door to help her eventually become a military lawyer.

Cummings is currently in school at Valencia College to receive her associate’s degree. She hopes law school will follow soon after.

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“Joining the military is amazing because I feel like it gives you that stepping stone in what you want to do in your life,” she said. “I had doubts in the beginning because I was like, ‘I’m a girl, what am I doing?’… but I love it. I think that if I could sign another contract, I definitely would.”

David Mercado, a 67-year-old U.S. Army veteran also drove to the speedway from Orlando. He came to the event clad in purple, wearing a lavender suit and deep plum-colored hat — an ode to the Purple Heart honor awarded to him after he was wounded in action in Panama.

A veteran of 20 years, he served in several overseas countries, but received his Purple Heart award from Operation Just Cause, when the U.S. invaded Panama in 1989.

David Mercado, a 67-year-old U.S. Army veteran, represented the 400 Orlando chapter of the Purple Heart organization at Ford's Veterans Day Classic event at Daytona International Speedway Nov. 11, 2026. He received a Purple Hearts award after he was wounded in combat in Panama.

David Mercado, a 67-year-old U.S. Army veteran, represented the 400 Orlando chapter of the Purple Heart organization at Ford’s Veterans Day Classic event at Daytona International Speedway Nov. 11, 2026. He received a Purple Hearts award after he was wounded in combat in Panama.

He now serves as commander of Chapter 400 of of the Purple Heart organization in Orlando.

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“It’s amazing. I mean, it’s my first time (here) in 30 years having lived in Orlando,” he said.

Zac Brown Band, Jo Dee Messina, Nelly and more perform at Ford’s Veterans Day Classic event

Some veterans came for the community. Others, for the festivities.

John Lang, 74, of Atlantic Beach, came for both. Surrounded by more than 10 of his closest North Florida friends, the group, like most other attendees, all sported some form of red, white and blue.

For Lang, that was an American flag cowboy hat placed over his long white ponytail and a blue Wounded Waters T-shirt, a nonprofit representing veterans through fishing and outdoor recreation.

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He said they got tickets through the website Vet Tix, which gives discounted or free tickets to veterans. For four people, he said, each person only had to pay $17, he said It sure beat throwing darts all night — what he would have been doing otherwise.

Lang and his group sat in the front row directly to the left of the stage in one of the speedway’s seated sections to see the big-name artists perform. Zac Brown Band performed hits like “Chicken Fried,” “Keep Me in Mind,” “Homegrown” and “As She’s Walking Away,” along with a cover of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

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Ford Veterans Day Classic debuts with concert, race at Daytona

Zac Brown Band kicks off the Veterans Day Classic on Nov. 11, 2026, at Daytona International Speedway.

(Nadia Zomorodian/News-Journal)

Zac Brown’s banjo-sounding guitar solo during the Charlie Daniels cover helped turn the performance into one of the night’s most electrifying moments, by far.

Other artists, including Warren Zeiders and Russell Dickerson, opened the show, with each artist performing one song. Zeiders performed his new song, “Overrated,” and Dickerson performed “Worth Your Wild,” from his March EP.

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Before the race, Brittney Spencer, who was featured on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album, sang the national anthem. And between the checkered flag and Austin Cindric’s trip to Victory Lane, rapper and singer Nelly performed his hit “Ride Wit Me.”

— Kairi Lowery covers growth and development and breaking news in Volusia County for The News-Journal. She can be reached at Klowery@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Veterans Day Classic at Daytona Speedway mixes NASCAR, music, tributes

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com

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